Life In Araf
Date: 28 September – 4 October 2018
Place: Bedesten / Nicosia
Curator: Zehra Şonya
Artists :
Arif Albayrak , Aşık Mene, Bahar Çıralı, Batu Gündal, Eser Keçeci Malyalı , Gökçe Keçeci, Gönen Atakol, Haidi Trauthman, Hüseyin Özinal, İnci Kansu, İsmet Tatar, Kemal. B. Caymaz, Mehmet Ulubatlı, Mustafa Öztunç, Nilgün Güney, Nilüfer İnandım, Osman Keten, Serkan İlsever, Simge Uygur, Şenol Özdevrim, Tayland Okuzkan, Türksal İnce
About Exhibition
Art has never existed just as a beauty or aesthetic value. Whilst questioning and searching for the truth in relation to the social events in each period and age, art has often been interested in untold problems, events and facts. In this respect, art has become the society's voice, conscience and mind. When we evaluate art from this point of view, we have to accept that it unveils the problems of the age and society. The exhibition concept was determined through taking these values and realities into account.
Defined as 'the middle place' in dictionary, the word 'Purgatory' is described in Quran as the intermediate point between the Heaven and Hell. The person who has equal sins and good deeds can neither go to heaven nor to hell. Trapped between the two worlds, the soul suffers. It doesn't belong to here or there. As we look into the political and cultural process of the Turkish Cypriot community after 1974, they are either at war or in peace. They live in this world but they are not from it, they are either themselves or the other, they are neither free or a prisoner, and they live in a country but they don't have it.
Living in Purgatory refers to an intermediate state, the state of being in the middle, living the dilemma, being trapped, uncertainty, inaction, helplessness, being out of the system, being other and so forth. When considered in a wider perspective, it expresses a reality that can grasp and affect every subject within the current life, and is valid in other societies, geographies and countries.
This exhibition, held with the participation of EMU Art Collection artists, has tried to convey the social and cultural effects of living in Purgatory on individuals and societies from the perspective of artists. In today's globalising world, we hope to face the deserted life forms and new problems, situations and events that need to be addressed and, at the same time, to become more aware of the lives in Purgatory.
Zehra Şonya
